Geoff
Starter
I thought this was a pretty neat column. I had to <snip> it to get it under the post limit, so go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51731-2005Feb24.html?nav=headlines for the full deal.
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Perhaps Webber Can Do Right With What's Left
By Mike Wise
The King with everything but a ring is in the East now. Chris Webber is Allen Iverson's teammate. He was acquired by Philadelphia in a six-player deal that swung the pendulum toward the 76ers in the Atlantic Division and most likely thrust the Eastern Conference playoffs into at least a four-team crapshoot.
Webber was far and away the biggest deal at the NBA trading deadline. <snip> If Webber and Iverson remain healthy, they are better than every duo in the East except Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
Stars still win playoff games. Webber will get calls down the stretch of tight playoff games that neither Kenny Thomas nor Corliss Williamson, the two principal players traded to Sacramento, have earned. The 76ers now have a legitimate shot at getting to the Finals before Iverson, 29, and Webber, who turns 32 next week, give in to injury and age. And don't discount the acquisition of Rogers, either. He's a big body and he's averaging about 10 points and five rebounds.
When Webber arrived in the NBA, he was the 20-year-old kid for whom fans felt great empathy. He was stuck in the corner, calling a timeout in a national championship game his Michigan team did not have.
In his ninth NBA season, when he got close again, Webber missed all four shots he attempted in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. It was Sacramento's best shot at dethroning the Los Angeles Lakers.
A knee injury against Dallas in 2003 and a missed three-pointer against Minnesota last season sent home his last two playoff teams.
Webber played some spectacular basketball in between. Yet the end of each season found him a baby hook shy of the next round.
Through all the controversy, much self-created, and the last-second misses, Webber paid his dues. He went from a difficult young Turk to an old head obsessed with a championship. Seven years after a disappointing end in Washington, one of the most gifted players of his generation has a chance to make a difference in the Eastern Conference again.
Is this an ironclad deal for Philadelphia? No. The 76ers have to be somewhat concerned because Geoff Petrie, the Kings' president of operations, is always so far ahead of the curve in personnel matters. Let's not forget Petrie once acquired Webber for Mitch Richmond. He traded Jason Williams for Mike Bibby.
No matter what happens, Webber's best years were spent in Sacramento. Petrie felt Webber had reached a point of diminishing returns with $62 million and three years left on his contract. He wanted to cut the team's losses now.
Remaining in Sacramento as his body wore down would have been painful to watch. Webber and the Kings were becoming Patrick Ewing and the 1990s Knicks. Ewing and his band of revolving role players could never get past Michael Jordan and the Bulls. The same fans who jeered the aging center for slowing down the offense late in his career stood and roared at his retirement ceremony; flaws and all, they finally understood Ewing's importance. Maybe he did not outduel Jordan or Hakeem Olajuwon over six or seven games, but he kept the Knicks in it and filled the city's hoopheads with excitement and possibility for more than a decade.
Webber, too, had a love-hate relationship with his Sacramento fans. They will point to some overhyped, regular season statistic today, where the Kings were 38-31 with Webber the past two seasons and 51-16 without him. That's so short-sighted after all the noisy, delirious nights at Arco Arena the past seven seasons. The fans forget that in their 19 seasons in Sacramento, the Kings did not reach the second round of the playoffs until Webber got there, an NBA outpost routinely headed for the lottery.
When Williams was drafted and paired with Webber, Sacramento suddenly had moxie and style; the basketball moved like a pinball. After Bibby was acquired for Williams in 2002, the Kings had all the championship makings. Webber at power forward, Vlade Divac in the middle, Peja Stojakovic and Doug Christie on the wings and Bibby at the point. Every player could shoot and pass. Webber's Kings may be the most skilled starting five never to win a title. There were nights at Arco Arena when it was hardly about basketball. Webber's team explored the angles and the art of the game. The Kings simply could not get past the Lakers, who were handed Game 6 of that 2002 series by the officiating crew.
Webber will bring that to Philadelphia, those wrap-around, behind-the-back passes and sweet give-and-gos that were one part athleticism and nine parts skill. Is his pairing with Iverson akin to Moses Malone joining Julius Erving in 1983, Philly's last title season? Is he Rasheed Wallace coming from the West at midseason to help Detroit win it all a year ago? That might be rash.
Iverson might be able to do for Webber what Kidd has done for Carter, who has no problem deferring to the point guard. Iverson never respected Keith Van Horn, butted heads with Jerry Stackhouse and didn't mesh on the court with Glenn Robinson. He respects Webber unlike the other scorers he has been paired with. Webber gives Iverson the chance he hasn't had since 2001.
Before the Lakers series in 2002, Webber said, "I'm just worried because I'm becoming obsessed with it, that if I don't win it. . . . "
He spoke of Charles Barkley, who never won a title. "You know, Barkley says he's cool with it. I don't think I could be." The chances of him and Iverson pulling it off in Philadelphia are slim today. Maybe an offseason acquisition could vault the 76ers to the top of the East a year from now, but San Antonio or Phoenix will still be in the way. Logic says Webber is just one of those players for whom it wasn't meant to be.
When Webber's career is discussed, everybody talks about whether he is indeed cursed in the clutch -- as if it's all on him. What if Jalen Rose had just come to get the ball out of Webber's hands? Maybe Michigan beats North Carolina. If a hobbled Stojakovic steps up and makes a three-pointer in that Game 7 against the Lakers instead of hoisting an air ball with 10 seconds left in regulation, maybe Webber gets that ring.
Either way, he is still chasing it. Whatever you think of his past mistakes on and off the floor, you can't help but pull for the old head in Philadelphia.
----------------------------------------------------
Perhaps Webber Can Do Right With What's Left
By Mike Wise
The King with everything but a ring is in the East now. Chris Webber is Allen Iverson's teammate. He was acquired by Philadelphia in a six-player deal that swung the pendulum toward the 76ers in the Atlantic Division and most likely thrust the Eastern Conference playoffs into at least a four-team crapshoot.
Webber was far and away the biggest deal at the NBA trading deadline. <snip> If Webber and Iverson remain healthy, they are better than every duo in the East except Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
Stars still win playoff games. Webber will get calls down the stretch of tight playoff games that neither Kenny Thomas nor Corliss Williamson, the two principal players traded to Sacramento, have earned. The 76ers now have a legitimate shot at getting to the Finals before Iverson, 29, and Webber, who turns 32 next week, give in to injury and age. And don't discount the acquisition of Rogers, either. He's a big body and he's averaging about 10 points and five rebounds.
When Webber arrived in the NBA, he was the 20-year-old kid for whom fans felt great empathy. He was stuck in the corner, calling a timeout in a national championship game his Michigan team did not have.
In his ninth NBA season, when he got close again, Webber missed all four shots he attempted in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. It was Sacramento's best shot at dethroning the Los Angeles Lakers.
A knee injury against Dallas in 2003 and a missed three-pointer against Minnesota last season sent home his last two playoff teams.
Webber played some spectacular basketball in between. Yet the end of each season found him a baby hook shy of the next round.
Through all the controversy, much self-created, and the last-second misses, Webber paid his dues. He went from a difficult young Turk to an old head obsessed with a championship. Seven years after a disappointing end in Washington, one of the most gifted players of his generation has a chance to make a difference in the Eastern Conference again.
Is this an ironclad deal for Philadelphia? No. The 76ers have to be somewhat concerned because Geoff Petrie, the Kings' president of operations, is always so far ahead of the curve in personnel matters. Let's not forget Petrie once acquired Webber for Mitch Richmond. He traded Jason Williams for Mike Bibby.
No matter what happens, Webber's best years were spent in Sacramento. Petrie felt Webber had reached a point of diminishing returns with $62 million and three years left on his contract. He wanted to cut the team's losses now.
Remaining in Sacramento as his body wore down would have been painful to watch. Webber and the Kings were becoming Patrick Ewing and the 1990s Knicks. Ewing and his band of revolving role players could never get past Michael Jordan and the Bulls. The same fans who jeered the aging center for slowing down the offense late in his career stood and roared at his retirement ceremony; flaws and all, they finally understood Ewing's importance. Maybe he did not outduel Jordan or Hakeem Olajuwon over six or seven games, but he kept the Knicks in it and filled the city's hoopheads with excitement and possibility for more than a decade.
Webber, too, had a love-hate relationship with his Sacramento fans. They will point to some overhyped, regular season statistic today, where the Kings were 38-31 with Webber the past two seasons and 51-16 without him. That's so short-sighted after all the noisy, delirious nights at Arco Arena the past seven seasons. The fans forget that in their 19 seasons in Sacramento, the Kings did not reach the second round of the playoffs until Webber got there, an NBA outpost routinely headed for the lottery.
When Williams was drafted and paired with Webber, Sacramento suddenly had moxie and style; the basketball moved like a pinball. After Bibby was acquired for Williams in 2002, the Kings had all the championship makings. Webber at power forward, Vlade Divac in the middle, Peja Stojakovic and Doug Christie on the wings and Bibby at the point. Every player could shoot and pass. Webber's Kings may be the most skilled starting five never to win a title. There were nights at Arco Arena when it was hardly about basketball. Webber's team explored the angles and the art of the game. The Kings simply could not get past the Lakers, who were handed Game 6 of that 2002 series by the officiating crew.
Webber will bring that to Philadelphia, those wrap-around, behind-the-back passes and sweet give-and-gos that were one part athleticism and nine parts skill. Is his pairing with Iverson akin to Moses Malone joining Julius Erving in 1983, Philly's last title season? Is he Rasheed Wallace coming from the West at midseason to help Detroit win it all a year ago? That might be rash.
Iverson might be able to do for Webber what Kidd has done for Carter, who has no problem deferring to the point guard. Iverson never respected Keith Van Horn, butted heads with Jerry Stackhouse and didn't mesh on the court with Glenn Robinson. He respects Webber unlike the other scorers he has been paired with. Webber gives Iverson the chance he hasn't had since 2001.
Before the Lakers series in 2002, Webber said, "I'm just worried because I'm becoming obsessed with it, that if I don't win it. . . . "
He spoke of Charles Barkley, who never won a title. "You know, Barkley says he's cool with it. I don't think I could be." The chances of him and Iverson pulling it off in Philadelphia are slim today. Maybe an offseason acquisition could vault the 76ers to the top of the East a year from now, but San Antonio or Phoenix will still be in the way. Logic says Webber is just one of those players for whom it wasn't meant to be.
When Webber's career is discussed, everybody talks about whether he is indeed cursed in the clutch -- as if it's all on him. What if Jalen Rose had just come to get the ball out of Webber's hands? Maybe Michigan beats North Carolina. If a hobbled Stojakovic steps up and makes a three-pointer in that Game 7 against the Lakers instead of hoisting an air ball with 10 seconds left in regulation, maybe Webber gets that ring.
Either way, he is still chasing it. Whatever you think of his past mistakes on and off the floor, you can't help but pull for the old head in Philadelphia.
